Mark 6:30-44: Jesus Satisfies

Introduction

Good morning,

Our text for today is Mark 6:30-44. The story contained in this text hold a unique distinction in that it is the only miracle account with the exception of the resurrection told in all four of the gospels.

You see, John ends his gospel account with the this sentiment:

English Standard Version Chapter 21

25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

As such we can understand and affirm that the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) have been put together by their human authors working under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in order to compile narratives which tell the story of Jesus.

However, with so much extraordinary material to pull from in terms of the actions and teachings of Jesus, each author selected particular parts of the story to tell in order to communicate the message of Jesus’ life and ministry best to their audience. The word for this is contextualization. As such each gospel has a remarkable amount of overlap but also very interesting differences which help us to see Jesus with more texture and clarity.

Given that, it is particularly interesting to me that aside from the resurrection itself, the only miracle story they have in common is this one.

Having spent time over the last two weeks in not only Mark 6, but also in Matthew 14, Luke 9, and John 6, it has become clear to me that the fundamental truth here is that each author wants to communicate is that Jesus satisfies.

However, back to the uniqueness of each gospel, they all take a slightly different focus on what they mean by Jesus satisfies. For our purposes this morning we are going to concern ourselves with understanding what Mark means as he by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit contemplates satisfaction in Jesus.

What I think we will see is that satisfaction in Jesus has everything to do with our understanding of who Jesus is.

What Is Happening?

As we jump into our text for this morning it is important to remember that Mark has been making a case for the identity of Jesus consistently for the duration of his gospel account, but he took a slight detour in the text we looked at last week to bring us a flashback to a party of sexually gross and violently graphic nature.

Thus as we turn to our text, the narrative turns away from the social and political elites intoxicatedly staring at the naked body of a teen girl and the severed head of a prophet of God in order to encounter a different kind of feast.

We might say:

While Galilee’s aristocrats feast sumptuously surrounded by decadency and deviancy in the ornate palace of the false king Herod, Jesus the Messiah satisfies the poor and humble—the true heirs of the Kingdom—in the open fields on the shores of Galilee with the simplest of means.

Modified from Strauss, ECotNT

Reading

With that having been laid out, let’s turn to our text of miraculous feeding:

English Standard Version Chapter 6

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

30 jThe apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. 35 And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. 36 Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” 38 And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” 39 Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. 41 And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. 42 And they all ate and were satisfied. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44 And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.

Outline

As we spend our morning reflecting on this text I want us to see a few key points about who Jesus is and why he is able to satisfy:

Jesus satisfies because he is the compassionate shepherd who feeds his flock.

Jesus satisfies because he is the master of ceremonies for Heaven’s end-time banquet.

Jesus satisfies because he is the Heavenly manna which God provides to satiate our spiritual hunger.

Alright, let’s dive in and see these points.

Compassionate Shepherd

English Standard Version Chapter 6

30 jThe apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. 35 And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. 36 Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.”

Let’s first take note of the centrality of eating to this text. Did you notice that?

English Standard Version Chapter 6

For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

English Standard Version Chapter 6

36 Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.”

And let’s not forget that the scene preceeding this one take place at a banquet.

It is easy to pass over these words as mere preliminary to the main point, but what this actually reminds us is that God does not waste words. Rather the focus on eating reminds us of one of the central tasks of a shepherd—feeding the sheep. These people are hungry and it is the shepherd’s job to feed them.

More Than A Mere Meal

But this is about more than a mere meal. Let’s notice two things that the text says in rapid succession in verse:

English Standard Version Chapter 6

34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.

Jesus has compassion on the crowd because they are like sheep without a shepherd

and so he responds by teaching them many things.

If the primary task of a shepherd is to feed the sheep and Jesus’s actions are spurred by the thought that the people are “like sheep without a shepherd then we can say that Jesus’ initial act of feeding in this text is his provision of teaching the crowd.

Jesus is taking on the role of the good and compassionate shepherd. So let me show you the importance of the concept “sheep without a shepherd” more clearly (two sub-points).

First notice this concept is internal to Jesus. What I mean is that we get a peak into Jesus’ internal life. The text gives us no indication that he expressed this thought out loud. Nor do Luke or John record this concept in their telling. Now Matthew does record these words, but Matthew likely has access to Mark’s gospel when he writes his own.

I take this to mean that Mark has a unique source on this. Who, then, we might ask, is Mark’s primary source?

Commentators tell us it is Peter.

Consider then the connection to a unique and intimate moment Peter has as recorded by John:

English Standard Version Chapter 21

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.

This text is often referred to as Peter’s Restoration. After having denied Jesus three times before he was crucified, Jesus has Peter renew his vow to him three times and in doing so restores Peter to ministry.

Interestingly enough, Jesus grabs hold of the language of shepherding. Not fishing.

Fishing was the original language of how Jesus called and commissioned Peter and was a play on Peter’s occupation. The primary role of a fisherman is to catch.

But the pivot here is to shepherding—with the primary focus on feeding.

Just by way of a brief sidebar:

there is a point to be made here about how pastors or elders—the shepherds of the church—are primarily tasked with feeding or teaching, which limits our availability for evangelism. It does not remove responsibility all together, but it means that Christians like yourselves must step up onto the frontlines of evangelism in order that pastors like Drew and I can bring you good and robust meals from God’s word each week.

Back to our text, we have this unique insight from the Mark-Peter-Jesus relationship about the shepherding and feeding.

Second, this concept is not new to Mark. Rather the Old Testament draws on the language of “sheep without a shepherd” on a number of occasions to show God’s concern with his people when they lack teaching and leadership, there are a few, but let’s look at Ezekiel 34:

English Standard Version Chapter 34

34 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. 4 The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; 6 they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.

Skipping down to verse 11,

English Standard Version Chapter 34

11 “For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.

There are so many points I want to make from this text, but for sake of time let me make three quick observations:

First, contextually it is clear that the Shepherds of Israel are the priestly class.

Second, the shepherds neglect of their God-given task provokes God’s anger against the shepherds and compassion toward the sheep.

God’s sheep are not being cared for, not being strengthened in their faith, not being encouraged when they are weary, ministered to when they are hurting. So God is angered at the shepherds and has compassion on the sheep.

God will take up the task of shepherding his people and he will cause them to feast in good grazing land.

Notice what God says he will do:

Search and seek

Rescue

Bring out from among the peoples

Feed them in rich pasture land

Have them lie down (give rest)

Bind the injured and strengthen the weak.

We have been seeing Jesus do these very things. Ezekiel 34 was being fulfilled in Jesus’ ministry!

Jesus is feeding his sheep.

And actually let me take a moment to comment on something small but significant here:

Ezekiel states:

English Standard Version Chapter 34

I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines

and

English Standard Version Chapter 34

14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel.

Now, Mark notes:

English Standard Version Chapter 6

Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass.

The “greenness” of the grass here is particularly interesting for two reasons:

First, that is an image of good pasture land. Green grass is exactly where you want to graze your flock. And we know that Jesus arrived at this location by boat—fitting the description of Ezekiel as “by ravines.” Again, something that indicates that Jesus is fulfilling the words of Ezekiel 34, but also it can provide something of an apologetic for us.

Hence, the second reason it is interesting—and I wish I had more time for this—but I don’t so I will rely on the work of scholar Peter Williams as sourced in Can We Trust the Gospels?

Dr. Williams confronts a number of arguments that people have against the trustworthiness of the Bible in general and the Gospel accounts in particular.

Oddly enough, this feeding of the five thousand is one in which many target to display how the Bible is merely a human text because it is obviously given to exaggeration as the stories are passed from one generation to the next.

There is a problem with this criticism though, specifically the nature of the text and contemporary data.

You see we have data on the amount of precipitation that non-biased climate scientists have estimated for the actual geographic region in which Jesus is supposed to have been and for the actual time of year (based on the references to passover) in which the event is to have taken place.

Here is what Dr. Williams notes:

But we need to return to the initial detail in mark and John about the grass. Would there really have been much of it, and would it have really been green? Between the years of AD 26 and 36, all possible dates for Passover range between the last days of March and the end of April. So if this event really took place at the time recorded, we should indeed expect that after the five most significant months of precipitation, grass would have been green. Note however, that none of our undesigned coincidences touches directly on this miracle. One might therefore be inclined to claim that the setting was realistic, but not the miracle. The miracle, one might argue, arose as the story was told from one person to another and was exaggerated. But the problem with treating the central part of the story—the miracle —as careless exaggeration is that the undesigned coincidences suggest careful transmission of peripheral details. If transmission of major elements of the story had been careless, we should not expect the minor elements to be well transmitted. Therefore, the idea that the miracle account arose through careless exaggeration involves an unrealistic process of selective corruption of information in the story. It lacks explanatory power for the current shape of the text

In other words, if there was not careful transmission but rather reckless exaggeration, why would the historically and scientifically accurate fact of the state of the lawn be retained?

In conclusion Dr. Williams notes:

Often the [facts are] so subtle and indirect that all but the most careful readers are likely to miss it. If you suppose that the gospel writers put such agreement to make their narrative's appear more authentic, then you have to imagine that they are among the most brilliant of all ancient writers. And the idea that several of the gospel writers might have done this in dependently is even less plausible.

Okay, let me draw these threads together. The picture being painted here is one of desperate people who are analogized to sheep. They have such longing for what Jesus can offer that they race to get to where he is going. When the head count is taken the total number of men, we might read heads of household, is approximately 5,000.

The actually number is likely (when including women and children) even larger.

Now consider Jesus in our text. His compassionate response to these lost and scattered sheep is first to teach them.

And what does he teach? Luke 9:11 gives us the content of the teaching:

English Standard Version Chapter 9

he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing.

The point is Jesus was feeding the masses before the bread and fish are ever multiplied because he is the compassionate shepherd.

They may have become physically hungry, but it was spiritual hunger they were first seeking to satisfy.

Let me make this point for us here. Jesus still uses the same means to satisfy our spiritual hungers. He still feeds us with the word of God and revives us with the Spirit and encourages us as we gather together.

Neglecting any of these elements is to act as a stubborn sheep, clenching our jaws shut as our gracious shepherd offers nourishment.

Heaven’s Master of Ceremonies

This passage isn’t just about Jesus the Compassionate Shepherd. In fact, the passage has so much about who Jesus is on the three themes I pulled out that I was conflicted as whether or not to deep dive into just one of them, but I settled on trying to touch sufficiently on each of the three.

So point two: Jesus as Heaven’s Master of Ceremonies.

What do I mean when I say “Master of Ceremonies”?

Let’s say you are having a big party. Like a wedding for example. The Master of Ceremonies or the Lord of the Feast was tasked with making sure everyone was satisfied. That everyone had a good time. That the party was a success. It was his job to make sure that everyone had enough to eat and drink and went home in the best spirits possible.

In this passage we see Jesus fulfilling just that role.

Let’s look back at the text:

English Standard Version Chapter 6

35 And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. 36 Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” 38 And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” 39 Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. 41 And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. 42 And they all ate and were satisfied.

This might seem a small thing to us. I mean, Jesus obviously preforms a miracle, but it’s sort of a lame one. I mean we’ve already had multiple miraculous healings, including the exorcism of an entire military unit of demons and a resurrection! By contrast this is the mere multiplication of some bread. Which is a cool party trick, but where is the spectacle, where is the showmanship.

But remember this is the only miracle, aside from the resurrection, contained in all four gospels. What could the gospel writers see in the multiplication of some bread and fish?

Author and Christian public intellectual Timothy Keller explains it this way:

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive The Good Shepherd

To you and me in our modern culture, what does bread mean? When you look at bread, do you know what it means to us? It means carbohydrates. That’s the deep, symbolic meaning of bread to us. In ancient times when there weren’t quite as many options in food and when it wasn’t as certain that the food would be there when you needed it, bread meant life. Bread was a symbol for life.

Context

In order to explain this, Keller peers into the world into which Jesus preforms this miracle. So let’s follow that example a bit more:

Historically this is before the emergence of the middle class or a significant merchant class. Most people are poor. They live in humble often one-room structures and they work to eat. There are no welfare recipients. The elderly and the cripple—even the simply the ill—were dependent on charity of family and community. As such their daily concerns did not revolve around the same sort of things as us.

In a world like that this is not a mere party trick or standard fair at the local restaurant—there are no waiters bring fresh baked bread and butter by during your weekly date night nor was bread a simple appetizer before a family dinner. These were people who knew the pains of hunger.

In fact, while some accuse the Bible of being trapped in its patriarchal context by recording only the number of men present. I am far more inclined to think of it as a reference to those in the audience whose honor and duty was inextricably linked to making sure bread was provided for those under their care.

In other words, this is addressing the daily needs and concern of those present. 5,000 men who are daily burdened with the obligation of feeding their family with the meager earnings of their labor. Into that stress and anxiety, Jesus offers relief in the form of a meal because he cares for the daily concerns of his sheep.

But let’s go deeper, let’s consider the culture again.

Contextually this miracle would have taken place in a Jewish area of the ancient world. In other words, it took place among people who were raised on the telling and retelling of the Old Testament tales of—among others—Moses and how God provided for his people in the wilderness

(Note verse 31’s reference to a desolate place, the greek word, ἔρημον, an adjective, but when used in the noun form is translated ‘Wilderness’ in 32 of the 48 times it appears in the New Testament.)

In other words, this event would have immediate brought to mind the stories of God’s miraculous provision for his people in the time of their wilderness wanders and purification before entering the promised land as conquerers.

This is why, in John 6, when the same story is told, a group of people seem to prepare themselves for a revelation against Rome. The audience hears melodies of Kingdom.

But we can go deeper still. This story is not simply about what God has done and was currently doing. It is also about what God will do. And this same crowd would have been familiar with readings and sermons on the books of Isaiah in which the Kingdom of God—which Jesus was just talking about—is characterized by a great banquet:

Isaiah 25:6 ESV

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

and

Isaiah 55:1–3 ESV

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.

The book of Revelation will pick up this same theme, but it will name the feast Isaiah is talking about as The Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

Thus one commentator notes:

The Gospel of Mark Feeding of Five Thousand Men (6:31–44)

For those with eyes to see it, this will be a foretaste of the messianic banquet, an introduction to the communal life of the kingdom of God.

Application

I think I hear some of you already. Some of you are thinking, something like “huh, interesting, but what relevance is any of this?”

This is where it becomes important to remember how Mark is telling this larger narrative of Jesus’ life. It is no accident that he places this event immediately after Herod’s birthday flashback.

Mark is trying to show us that the Masters of Ceremonies for our world can never offer satisfaction. Why do you think our own cultural icons across generations lament the inability for their thirsts and hungers to be slaked?

In 1965 Mick Jagger lamented “I can’t get no satisfaction”

In 2003 John Mayer crooned

I'm dizzy from the shopping mall I searched for joy, but I bought it all It doesn't help the hunger pains And a thirst I'd have to drown first to ever satiate

He helpful adds a checklist to the worlds Cosmic Via Bonum, the good life:

Friends (Check) Money (Check) A well slept (Check) Opposite sex (Check) Guitar (Check) Microphone (Check) Messages waiting on me when I come home (Check)

Yet he concludes:

Something's missing And I don't know how to fix it Something's missing And I don't know what it is No I don't know what it is

In 2007 Tom Brady questioned:

“Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, ‘Hey man, this is what is.’ I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think, ‘God, it’s got to be more than this.’ I mean this isn’t, this can’t be what it’s all cracked up to be.”

What’s the answer?

“I wish I knew. I wish I knew,” says Brady.

I could go on and on about celebrity divorces in which money and beauty and sex are in no shortage. Or about rising rates of silicon valley suicides as the kids with the brightest futures and most advantages are in such immense discontentment that they take their own lives.

But they all point to the same thing. The Masters of Ceremonies of our world can never satisfy you. C.S. Lewis diagnosed our problem better than most in his sermon “The Weight of Glory.”

Drew and I have referenced this quote a number of times, but Lewis understood that the truth about us is that “We are half-hearted creatures” who are “fooling about… like ignorant child[ren]” because we lack the imagination to consider the staggering joy and pleasure of Heaven. We are far too easily pleased.

Lewis wanted to dispel two myths simultaneously. First, is that Heaven is a place characterized by stiffness and stuffiness. Nothing could be further from the truth. Second, is that true satisfaction lies in our gluttony for pleasure. Lewis says we have gotten it wrong again. When drink, sex, and ambition are put in their proper place enjoyment is not diminished but magnified.

Jesus Christ, Our good shepherd, and the Master of Ceremonies of Heaven wants to give us good things and Mark is not telling us but showing us how Jesus trust be trusted to satisfy. And to satisfy without harming, bullying, abusing, objectifying anyone else.

Why because we were made not for sex, money, power, and ambition—those are gifts that have been made for our enjoyment and exercise. We instead were made for God.

The question for us is are we willing to follow Christ and trust that he will satisfy the bewildering line at the end of this passage:

English Standard Version Chapter 6

And he divided the two fish among them all. 42 And they all ate and were satisfied. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44 And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.

Heavenly Bread

This leads into our final image of Christ and it comes from a question of doubt. It is hard to trust that God will satisfy us because we want to know the playbook, we want to know the plan, and so we ask:

“How will God satisfy us?”

To answer this question I want to return to a point made a few minutes back when talking about the context. I said that those who witnessed this miracle would have been raised on the stories of the Old Testament, specifically Exodus 16 and 17, where God provided for his people in the wilderness first with bread from Heaven and second with water from the rock.

The miraculous provision of food and drink is a theme of the Old Testament scriptures cropping up twice in 2 Kings 4. First, when the Prophet Elisha is able to miraculous multiply oil for a widow in immense debt so that it can be sold in order to pay off the debt and live off what is left over. Second, Elisha is able to feed a hundred of the “sons of the prophets” with twenty loaves of barley and a few ears of corn. 2 Kings 4:43-44 notes,

English Standard Version Chapter 4

43 But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” So he repeated, “Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the LORD, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’ ” 44 So he set it before them. And they ate and had some left, according to the word of the LORD

This story too is echoed in Mark’s telling when we see how Jesus feeds fifty times more with approximately four times less food and yet Mark 6:43:

English Standard Version Chapter 6

43 And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish.

The clear implication is that there were more leftovers than the amount of food they started with!

Jesus is going above and beyond here, Mark lets us wonder what all of this means. But the gospel of John leaves no such question.

As John tells the story, shortly after this miracle is preformed Jesus announces

English Standard Version Chapter 6

“Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

...

English Standard Version Chapter 6

“Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

How will God satisfy? He satisfies us by giving of himself. No mere singular miracle but a sign pointing to why Mick Jagger, John Mayer, Tom Brady, you and I lack satisfaction and contentment is because we fail to seek it in the true bread from Heaven—Jesus himself.

We play around with drink, sex, and ambition because we fail to trust Jesus to satisfy!

“But, Tyler,” you say “I am a Christian I trust Jesus, why am I still not satisfied?”

I think the answer lies in a detail of the Exodus story being played on by Mark:

English Standard Version Chapter 16

4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.

Do you see the instruction, gather enough, not excess, enough.

Why?

Because there is something deeper and more important God wants to do here and it is the same for us Christians today.

If the Israelites were given all that they needed at once, they would have soon turned from God. It is a theme of the Old Testament that abundance brings apathy.

Think about it: how often are the prayers you request of your brothers and sisters in Christ and the prayers you petition God with related to the gifts he has given you?

Stressed about work? Is that job not a gift from God to provide for you and those under your care?

Frustrated with your spouse or children? Did you not at one time pray for marriage and kids?

We are often distracted and anxious not by the schemes of Satan, but by the good gifts God has given us.

God grants our requests, things get easier and gratitude fades, soon complaints arise.

This is part of the paradox of Christianity. We are provided for on a daily basis by a God who longs to give to us abundantly, but knows that our easily pleased hearts are ill-prepared for the abundance of his kindness.

In his wisdom, then, discontentment is a tool of the Holy Spirit to push us further up and further in to relationship with God.

We must return time and again the Bread of Life in order to be forgiven and filled—to be satisfied.

Does not the hymnist rightly sing “prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.”

Instead, we need to look on the tiny morsels of bread and juice that we will partake of in a minute as a foretaste. God wants to wet our appetite for the feast in which we receive him—the one we were made for—in unimaginable abundance and we can spend eternity with him the true prize of Heaven.

English Standard Version Chapter 21

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Let’s pray.